Resources for Grad Students

Deadlines & Procedures

• The Application for Degree must be completed online. The link for the application is on myBama. You will be notified by email when it has been approved.
• For clinical students: As of 10/27/09, you must have 8 weeks between meetings/defenses. This will include thesis proposal meeting to thesis final defense, thesis final defense to dissertation mini-oral meeting, dissertation mini-oral meeting to dissertation prelim defense, and the dissertation prelim defense to the dissertation final defense. You may still schedule as many dissertation mini oral meetings as needed with no time requirements. Also, the preliminary exam must be successfully defended by October 1st to apply for internship. A student may take the oral or written examination only twice. Failing the examination twice results in dismissal from the degree program and the Graduate School.
• The doctoral plan of study must be filed no later than the semester during which the student will complete 30 semester hours of UA and/or transfer credit toward the doctoral degree. If it is not filed, a hold will be placed on your registration for the following semester. Mary Beth Hubbard is completing these for students and will contact you about it.
• Once a student has met the requirements for admission to candidacy, received approval for the dissertation research proposal, or initiated enrollment in 699 (dissertation research for a doctoral degree), the student must pursue completion of the dissertation without interruption why enrolling each fall and spring semester of the academic year for at least 3 hours of dissertation research. This is explained fully in the document Minimum Registration Requirements (PDF). Further, if you defend at the end of one semester but do not submit your dissertation to the Graduate School for approval until after the end of the semester (the date grades are due), you must register for 1-3 dissertation hours the following semester. If you submit your dissertation before the end of the drop/add period, you may register for 1 hour; if you submit it after the drop/add period, you must register for 3 hours.
• To earn the MA, you need 24 hours of coursework in your curriculum, 6 hours of thesis, and a completed and approved thesis. The 24 hours of coursework will vary from one subarea to the next but must include PY 607 and PY 602.
• Grad students can apply for research or travel awards of $300-$600 twice a year through the department, in August and in January. Watch email for announcements.

Department Resources

• Psychology Department Policy Handbook 2020-21 (PDF): Contains information about policies and procedures of the department and applies to faculty, staff, and students.
• 2020 Graduate Student Handbook (Doc): Contains information about the organization, policies, and procedures of the graduate program in psychology. It applies to all tracks in the clinical and experimental psychology PhD programs. It should be used along with other primary references listed below. This version supersedes all earlier versions.
• Climate Improvement Resources: Find information about our graduate program’s annual climate improvement survey, including the Climate Improvement System Off-Cycle Form and resources related to DEI, complaints, and more.
• Departmental Bound Copies: Information about the binding and distribution of bound copies of your doctoral dissertation is provided on this page.
• Department Brochure (PDF)
• Grad Student Mental Health Resources (PDF)
• Thesis and Dissertation Paperwork: Get a list of all the paperwork needed for each thesis and dissertation meeting.
• Transfer of Graduate Credit: Find out how to transfer graduate course credit taken outside of UA. Note: this should be done in April of the first year.
• Travel Reimbursement Information for Grad Students: Find travel-related info and learn how to get reimbursed for travel expenses (travel reimbursement form included).

Clinical Resources

• Clinical Training Manual 2021 – 2022 (PDF): Contains information that applies specifically to the Clinical Psychology program. There is a substantial amount of information in the Clinical Training Manual that is not included in the Graduate Student Handbook.

Experimental Resources

• Experimental Program Manual (PDF): Contains information that applies specifically to the experimental PhD program.

Research Resources

• Introductory Psychology Subject Pool: List times for your experiment, check sign-ups, and award credits. For questions or to post an experiment, contact Dr. Sheila Black at sblack@ua.edu.
• Psychology Department Review of IRB Protocols Form: Include this sheet with the signature sheet from your IRB proposal for the departmental chair’s signature.
• Research Overhead 1st year Travel Request Form: First-year students may request up to $300 to defray the cost of travel to a research/professional conference during their first year of study. Alternatively, for the 2020-21 school year only, they may choose to request up to $300 to defray the cost of any research-related activity (e.g., purchasing materials, participant recruitment expenses, and so on). These funding options are mutually exclusive (i.e., you select one of them but not both). We expect to resume the standing policy of using funds for conference attendance only next year. This form should be completed and submitted to the graduate program assistant before the travel begins. In the “Approval” field, please put the name of your advisor. If the funds are being requested for research-related activity and not conference travel, insert “NA” into the fields that probe for conference attendance information.
• University of Alabama Institutional Review Board: Find out how to have your study reviewed for ethics considerations by UA’s IRB. Take the online research ethics training course required by the University.
• Using Qualtrics and the SONA Research Pool

University Resources

• Financial Assistance Handbook: The psychology department finds funding for most funding-eligible students, but this document lists additional funding sources including some grants and scholarships for which students can apply.
• Graduate Catalog: Information that applies to all University of Alabama graduate programs, as well as specific information related to the psychology program. Psychology graduate students must adhere to Graduate School guidelines. In some instances, the standards or guidelines of the psychology program are more rigorous than those of the Graduate School. In such instances, psychology graduate students must follow the psychology program guidelines.
• Graduate School Website: More information for graduate students, including Graduate Community News, Events and Activities for graduate students, a multitude of essential web forms.
• Graduate Assistant Guide: Contains information on terms, benefits, and responsibilities of graduate assistants.
• GSA Travel & Research Funding: This is a last chance funding opportunity for graduate students who have unsuccessfully attempted to receive funding from other sources (e.g., the psychology department). Please be sure to read the linked document carefully. A number of additional documents are described and required for submission.
• Institute for Social Science Research: UA’s interdisciplinary organization for promoting research in the social sciences. Also provides opportunities for graduate training in social science research.
• University of Alabama Institutional Review Board: Find out how to have your study reviewed for ethics considerations by UA’s IRB. Take the online research ethics training course required by the University.
• Pivot Funding Database: This is a tool that allows customized search of available opportunities for research funding. The University provides more information and account creation instructions.

General Resources

• APA Ethics Code: Contains the American Psychological Association’s ethical principles and code of conduct for psychologists engaging in research or practice.
• Stat-Help.com: Links to notes on different types of statistical analyses, helpful statistics sites, and calculation spreadsheets.
• Research Randomizer: Designed to assist researchers and students who want an easy way to perform random sampling or assign participants to experimental conditions.
• RefWorks: Web-based tool designed to help researchers manage and share information and generate citations and bibliographies. For users of programs like EndNote, RefWorks will be familiar, but with the advantages that it is accessible (24/7) from anywhere with no software to install. There are links to the tutorials and for on-campus and off-campus access, as well as pointers to support options.